Posts Tagged ‘radical by david platt’

a pet peeve of mine; when others speak of Christ as a wishy-washy God, all loving and not recognizing a huge part of God…

when i read this section from the book, it really stuck with me and i’m convicted that i am guilty of this!!

Peruse the Christian marketplace, and you will find a plethora of books, songs, and paintings that depict God as a loving Father. And he is that. But he is not just a loving Father, and limiting our understanding of God to this picture ultimately distorts the image of God we have in our culture.

Yes, God is a loving Father, but he is also a wrathful Judge. In his wrath he hates sin. Habakkuk prayed to God, “Your eyes are too pure to love on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.” And in some sense, God also hates sinners. You might ask, “What happened to ‘God hates the sin and loves the sinner’?” Well the Bible happened to it. One psalmist said to God, “The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.” Fourteen times in the first fifty psalms we see similar descriptions of God’s hatred toward sinners, his wrath towards liars, and so on. In the chapter in the gospel of John where we find one of the most famous verse concerning God’s love, we also find one of the most neglected verses concerning God’s wrath. (psalm 5:5 and john 3:16, 36)

i don’t know about you but i needed this reminder!! wow, how destructive it is to not study the Bible on my own… IF i would have been on a daily basis prior to this week (biblein90days) as a lifestyle, i would have seen on my own how this is true and not allowed these thoughts to live in me and dominate my decision making!

after reading just the first two chapters of this book i’m feeling very convicted. recognizing truth straight from scripture – how do you even argue with that?

i’ve paused again in reading to make myself chew over a new battle with my self…

We prefer to sit back, enjoy our cliches, and picture God as a Father who might help us, all the while ignoring God as a Judge who might damn us.

Maybe this is why we fill our lives with constant drivel of entertainment in our culture – and in the church. We are afraid that if we stop and really look at God in his Word, we might discover that he evokes greater awe and demands deeper worship than we are ready to give him.

i will admit right here, i am afraid to stop and really look. up until now, i have allowed it to cripple and hinder my time with Him and my entire life. not anymore.

i can usually find the words to say the right things and do the ‘right things’ to imply and get other’s to believe, i’m in a different place spiritually than where i really am. this facade is going down! i’m tired of the guilt that comes along with it. it’s time to really allow God to be Lord of my life. i’m really understanding what that means. scary. but how i’ve been living on my own is waaaaaay scarier!

besides, you all know the truth anyway! you can’t tell me i’m the only one who can tell when someone is lying… this lie specifically has destroyed relationships and burnt bridges – it’s way past time to stop.

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Christ followers in American churches have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical but that actually contradict the gospel we claim to believe.

this makes me speechless. this is why so many look into christianity and say “hypocrites” or that it is shallow…. because we ARE shallow. (no, not EVERY christian but we are talking about the majority here and yes, i am moving into a minority state)

…If Jesus is who he said he is, and if his promises are as rewarding as the Bible claims they are, then we may discover that satisfaction in our lives and success in the church are not found in what our culture deems most important but in RADICAL ABANDONMENT TO JESUS.

(emphasis added)

what a huge moment for me as i’m reading this… my entire body screams there is something VERY wrong with the church today… what is it? THIS, this is what is wrong… all other problems will be addressed if this one core issue is addressed.

my next conviction is simply put: do i believe that Jesus is worthy of my death or my imprisonment? this is a real issue. we can distance ourselves, but then we are lying to ourselves… the only place this isn’t a big deal is in the united states where we have dumbed down the gospel and made it comfortable. morphed it into what makes US feel good (i’m including myself here! i am so guilty!!!)

…somewhere along the way we had missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.

a relationship with Jesus requires total, superior, and exclusive devotion.

he must truly be the LORD of our lives….

now the application…

*deep breath*

step one: read the bible in 90 days! it’s not too late to join! (see more info on the left)

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

this simply blows my mind. it takes what i did not question about my thinking and causes me to question… i hope it does you too!

…in the American dream. Where self reigns as king (or queen), we have a dangerous tendency to misunderstand, minimize, and even manipulate the gospel in order to accommodate our assumptions and our desires. As a result, we desperately need to explore how much of our understanding of the gospel is American and how much is biblical. And in the process we need to examine whether we have misconstrued a proper response to the gospel and maybe even missed the primary reward of the gospel, which is God himself.

What causes followers of Christ around the world literally to risk their lives in order to know it?

this i am about to find out for myself from the Bible itself! i’m scared half to death but i KNOW nothing in this life is as important as this!

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i started reading radical by david platt this week with a dear friend. can i just say coming to the place to read it is a few blog posts in and of itself… glorious and God filled does not near describe it.

i had all kinds of ideas about what this book was about – what it would make me do – how it would make me uncomfortable. slap me across the face and tell me i don’t need another pair of flip-flops. live bitterly without them.

wow. was i ever wrong.

heads up: no bookmark needed for radical. it’s SO obvious where you stop. the scribbles are EVERY WHERE.

the first challenge that struck me in chapter one was: am i going to believe Jesus? regardless of what he tells me. do i believe that he really will carry me through. (not my way of carrying me through, but his…). that hit me below the belt. it really did!

hold up, i made a decision prior to starting this book, that i would NOT blow anything off. i would digest everything and if i couldn’t commit to a concept i knew was straight from Christ then i would stop and chew until i was in 125%!

ok, what was i saying…? oh yea….

the cherry on top: am i going to obey Jesus? convo in head: well there was this one time, in an itty bitty way, i obeyed. so sure! i can do it again…. what if it’s a bigger one, like sell your house and move to africa? *pause* and then this thought crosses my mind: what if he tells me and i have (allow myself/choose) to turn away pretending that i didn’t hear his command. and then david platt writes,

“… my biggest fear even now is that i will hear Jesus’ words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience to him. in other words, my biggest fear is that I will do exactly what most people did when they encountered Jesus in the first century.”

oh.

he nailed it AGAIN! man this guy is good. *flip book over looking for a picture of him* who is this guy? i’m only on PAGE THREE!!!

more to come…. go buy the book now and get to reading. before i tell you everything in it!